Learning to build websites can be a challenge but you don’t have to do it alone. There are tons of free support communities where you can ask questions connect with other developers.

These websites are sure to help anyone build up their dev portfolio and improve their knowledge tenfold. You can learn so much by simply asking and learning from others with more experience. And with these free websites at your disposal, it’s easier than ever to teach yourself web development from scratch.

Stack Overflow

First on this list is Stack Overflow with very good reason. The site is a treasure trove of coding solutions with QAs on pretty much everything.

It’s free to sign up and you can ask as many questions as you want. However, I recommend searching the site before asking because it’s likely someone has asked your question before so there may already be an answer to your problem.

Stack covers all languages from frontend to backend and database code. You can find solutions for pretty much everything, so this is my go-to suggestion for learning how to do something or solving a specific bug.

Reddit

Another highly populated site is Reddit which has many smaller communities called subreddits. They all serve different topics from frontend to CSS and each community is populated with experts.

You can ask questions, poll users, or keep up on the latest news in the design/dev industry. I specifically recommend the /r/webdev sub because it’s extra friendly to newbies and it moves fast with dozens of new posts each day.

Plus you can subscribe to multiple places at once to curate all of these subreddits together. Definitely a great site for the tech-oriented crowd with a lot of helpful users.

SitePoint Forums

SitePoint has been online for well over a decade covering every aspect of design, UX, and programming. Their community forums offer a way to connect with skilled devs and share ideas.

The forums offer dozens of categories from marketing to programming and website setup techniques like servers and DNS settings. This is the largest community covering so many tech topics, and it’s a great place to hang around.

As with all popular forums you should try searching before you create a new thread. It’s likely that others have already asked similar questions and many times you can find answers to your questions faster by just searching.

Echo JS

Still in beta but quickly gaining traction is the Echo JS community. This site works a bit like Reddit where you can join for free and vote on new stories.

However it’s a much slimmer version of social voting with fewer features. There’s only a homepage with no archives, and there aren’t as many features for commenting or tracking responses.

But what I like about this site is that it’s niche and focused. The sole purpose is to cover JavaScript news, questions, and resources breaking in the industry. An excellent site for JS lovers, not so useful for anyone else though.

Bytes

Bytes follows the same model as Stack Overflow with question/answer sections covering pretty much every tech IT topic.

This site is much smaller than Stack so it doesn’t have the same depth or level of user experience.

But it’s one central hub for developers to talk about career paths, server setups, programming, and lifestyle. You can browse categories to see which topics are covered and where you can ask questions. Definitely a small community but worthwhile if you’re willing to give it a shot.

Dzone

A few years back Dzone was solely a social news website. It has since grown into a tech news blog on programming, IT, and web development.

But they still have a big community with a links page and user profiles. This site is packed with pro developers and useful information to help you learn how the industry works. It’s great for CS majors, IT techs, DevOps engineers, or anyone aspiring to break into the industry.

It doesn’t get as much attention as a community anymore, but Dzone is worth browsing every so often for breaking news and IT/coding tips.

Codecademy

Codecademy is perhaps the most popular resource to teach yourself web development. It has a huge userbase and tons of tutorials on all the basics like HTML5, CSS3, Sass, JavaScript, and some frameworks like WordPress.

They do have a community site where you can discuss ideas and help other developers on their learning path. It’s not the largest community, but it has a strong learning environment for anyone regardless of skill level.

If you’re completely new to coding and have no idea where to start then Codecademy is worth bookmarking.

FreeCodeCamp

The team at FreeCodeCamp built one amazing resource for aspiring developers. It’s a free learning site that bundles lessons with a community of users who help eachother answer questions and solve problems.

They have a designated forum for discussing ideas and asking questions along your journey. This is also a great place to recruit for work and to collaborate with other developers on cool projects.

The site is totally free to join, and you can start learning right away. This along with Codecademy are two amazing resources that I would recommend to any serious developer.

DevShed

I remember finding the Dev Shed forums way back when I first started web development in the mid 2000s. It’s still online today and it offers a fantastic community with sub-forums on pretty much every topic you can think of.

DevShed follows the traditional forum model using vBulletin with threads, bumped responses, and sub-forums to organize everything together. This is very different from modern communities that usually run on proprietary systems.

But even as DevShed pushes 15 years online it’s still one of the best communities for aspiring coders.

Hacker News

The community at Hacker News slants towards startups and tech innovation. It’s a social news voting site developed by the early stage investment company Y Combinator.

It is by far one of the largest tech social news communities around, and it’s extremely popular. This probably isn’t the best place to ask questions or learn to code, but it is great to keep up with the latest advancement in technology.

You can learn so much just by browsing the front page of Hacker News. It’s a great site for any tech enthusiast, and it’s one of the more intelligent startup communities on the web.

Every site in this post offers something unique from QA programming help to web dev news and career advice. This list is massive but far from complete since new sites launch every year and communities can build fast.

If you know any similar dev community sites feel free to share in the comments and let us know your thoughts.

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